Reader Q&A: How Can I Tell If A Product Has Natural Sugar Or Added Sugar?

You all have been asking me some great questions here on my blog as well as on Facebook and Twitter, so I thought I would take some time this week to answer a few. Let's start with this question about sugar:

…When shopping you may see something listed with 3 grams of sugar. How can you tell if it is just natural sugar in the product or added sugar with so many different names for sugar?

You are exactly right–there are a lot of names for sugar! In nature, we find three basic types of sugar: sucrose (cane sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), and lactose (milk sugar). Man takes those sugars and combines them in different ways to make man-made sugars such as high-fructose corn syrup.

The best way to tell which kind of sugar is in your product is to look at your ingredient list. Fruits and milk products will have sugar grams listed on the nutrition facts panel, but there will be no “sugar” word listed in the ingredient list.

For example, on a package of frozen blueberries, the nutrition facts panel states that it has 12g of sugar for a 1 cup serving, but on the ingredient list the only thing listed is blueberries. So in that case you know that the sugar listed is natural fruit sugar found in the blueberries.

Another example would be skim milk, the nutrition facts panel states that it has 12g of sugar for an 8oz. serving, but on the ingredient list, it only says: fat free milk, vitamin A palmitate, and vitamin D3. So again, you know the sugar listed is natural sugar found in the milk.

The key is to look at the ingredient list and if you see a sugar word listed, such as sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, or any other word ending in -ose, chances are it is an added sugar. In addition, if you see a product that says: “no added sugars,””no sugar added,” or “without added sugar” that means it just has what is naturally found in the product.